Methods and systems for dynamically optimizing content for consumption on a scheduled trip

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods are described herein for retrieving an information file from a user profile about a scheduled trip, where access to content may be restricted and identifying, based on the consumption pattern, a first progression point before the scheduled start time and a second progression point after the scheduled end time of the scheduled trip. Based on the difference between the first and second progression points, the media guidance application causes to be stored the respective media assets on a consumption device. Then before departing for the scheduled trip, the media guidance application confirms the first progression points against the current progression point and causes to adjust the stored media assets based on a difference between the current progression point and the first progression point.

BACKGROUND

The present disclosure relates to methods and systems for storingcontent for a trip and, more particularly, to methods and systems foroptimizing the amount of content to download for a trip based on theprogress of consuming the programming.

SUMMARY

Frequent travelers may find themselves lacking movies and shows to watchbased on geographical limitations. Although recommendations may beavailable, accessing them may be limited based on the contentavailability in a particular geographical area. For example, whentraveling to a particular geographical area, the recommendations andcontent on a user watchlists may not be accessible. Moreover, a show ora series may only be available in a select number of episodes. There isnot a correlation between where the user stopped watching a show orseries and the available episodes. These systems provide a limitedcollection of content items for passengers to watch during transit andon vacation in some destinations, but often the user manually downloadssome episodes of a show or a movie before departing for the trip. Thisalso becomes less effective when the user watches some of the downloadedepisodes on the consumer device before departing, which results in theuser not having ample episodes to last the entire trip. For example, theuser is interested in watching episodes of a show “Friends.” If the userwatches some episodes of “Friends” before departing for the trip,manually downloads additional episodes for the trip, but consumes partof the content before departing, he or she may not have anything else ofinterest to watch while on the trip. Moreover, the related art islimited to manual interactivity between the user and the program guideand is labor-intensive. Alternatively, the consumer device may downloadall episodes of a series and fill up the processing storage and memoryof a consumption device. Thus, there is a need for the consumer deviceto be able to account for an upcoming scheduled trip, a consumptionpattern and the viewing progress before the scheduled trip and to allowfor adjustments to the stored content on the consumer device.

To overcome these problems, methods and systems are disclosed herein toensure access to a playlist's streaming media based on the consumptionpattern, progression point, and geographic content restrictions on thestreaming media. The systems and methods described herein may receiveinformation from a user profile. The information may include a scheduledtrip and a consumption pattern. The scheduled trip may include adestination, a scheduled start time and a scheduled end time. The systemmay identify a first progression point within the presentation of arespective media asset of a plurality of media assets at the scheduledstart time. For example, the consumer device associated with the userprofile is consuming episode 2 of season 1 of “Friends” and identifies,based on the timeline and consumption pattern, that in one week (e.g.,scheduled start time of trip), the progression point to which the useris likely to get before departing is up to episode 9 (i.e., up toepisode 9). Based on identifying that the user is likely to consumeepisodes 2 through 8 including episode 8 before departing, the systemmay determine a second progression point in consuming the media asset(e.g., episodes of the show) during the scheduled trip. For example, thesystem may determine based on the consumption progress that the user islikely to consume a total of seven episodes before the trip and reach upto episode 15 while on the scheduled trip. Based on identifying thesecond progression point (e.g., the start of episode 15), the systemcauses the consumption device to store the respective media assets fromthe plurality of media assets between the first progression point andsecond progression point on the consumption device. For example, thesystem downloads and stores episodes 9 through 15 of “Friends” on theconsumption device. Before departing, within a threshold time period(e.g., 1 hour, 12 hours, etc.) before the scheduled start time of thescheduled trip, the system may determine that the first progressionpoint within the presentation of the respective media asset of theplurality of media assets has shifted to a third progression point. Forexample, the user has consumed additional episodes on the consumptiondevice, and the current progression point is now up to the start ofepisode 10 and not episode 8 before departing for the trip. Based ondetermining that the first progression point (e.g., episode 8) hasshifted to a third progression point (e.g., episode 10), the systemcauses the consumption device to store episodes 10 through 17 of“Friends.” For example, the episodes that were presented on theconsumption device (or any other device linked to the user profile) maybe deleted, and additional episodes may be downloaded and stored on thedevice. The systems and methods described herein dynamically optimizethe amount (e.g., number of episodes of a show) of media asset of thedownloadable streaming media that is saved on the consumer device toensure that the user can take the content with him and circumvent aninability to access the media asset while having an appropriate amountof content to last the duration of the trip.

In some embodiments, the system performs the steps described above orbelow automatically and without user input. For example, the systemdetects that a user is to travel to a different geographic area (e.g.,by parsing the user's email or calendar to learn of a travel itinerary)and may automatically identify the consumption pattern of media assetsusing a consumption device and calculate, based on the media assetconsumption pattern, the amount of time before the scheduled trip, andthe duration of the scheduled trip, the expected duration of mediaassets expected to be consumed before the scheduled trip and accordinglydownloads media assets for the duration of the scheduled trip and beforethe user departs for the trip. The system and method may further confirmbefore the trip that the consumption pattern and progression points ofthe media assets align with downloaded content.

In some embodiments, the system determines based on the consumptionpattern media progression points before and during the scheduled trip.For example, the system determines that the user consumes an hour ofcontent a day over a week. In some embodiments, the consumption patternmay be based on other criteria. The system further retrieves informationabout a scheduled trip indicated by the profile. The scheduled trip mayinclude a scheduled start time and a scheduled end time. For example,the system determines that the user is traveling to Canada in 7 days fora seven-day stay. The system calculates based on the asset consumptionpattern (e.g., 1 hour consumption rate) a first progression point of 7hours of content and the duration (e.g., 7 days) of the scheduled trip(e.g., Canada) an expected duration of media assets expected to beconsumed during the scheduled trip (e.g., 7 hours of content). Forexample, the system determines, based on the average watch time of 1hour a day and the scheduled trip for 7 days, that the user is likely toconsume 7 hours of content before departing and 7 hours of content whileon the trip. Accordingly, the system downloads the show or series fromwhere he or she is likely to be, based on the expected 7 hours ofcontent to be consumed before departing and the 7 hours of content to beconsumed while on the trip. The system may further determine beforedeparting (e.g., 1 day before leaving) that the total play duration ofmedia assets downloaded on the consumption device is adequate for thetrip. In response to determining that the total play duration of mediaassets stored on the consumption device is less than the secondprogression point while on the trip, the system causes the consumptiondevice to store additional media assets on the consumption device.

In some embodiments, the streaming media that the user enjoys watchingis not available at the different geographic locations (e.g., due togeography-based content restrictions).

In some embodiments, systems and methods are described herein foroptimizing downloaded media assets unavailable for a scheduled tripbased on the expected duration of media assets expected to be consumedduring the scheduled trip. For example, the media assets may bedownloaded to the user's device based on the consumption pattern.

In some embodiments, the system causing to be stored the respectivemedia assets from the plurality of media assets between the firstprogression point and second progression point on the consumption deviceincludes identifying, based on a profile, a travel consumption patternof media assets using the consumption device during a previous trip. Forexample, the system determines that the consumer watched 10 hours ofcontent during the last 7 days. Based on the travel consumption pattern,the system determines a travel media asset consumption rate. Forexample, such a consumption rate indicates the consumer's viewingpattern when on a trip. Based on the travel media asset consumption rateand the scheduled trip duration, the system then calculates the expectedduration of media assets expected to be consumed during the trip. Insome embodiments, the system may collect data about the destination ofthe previous trip and may determine the consumption pattern associatedwith a destination.

In some embodiments, the system further identifies, based on theprofile, a non-travel consumption pattern, for example, a consumptionpattern while the user is not traveling and is at home. The system thendetermines, based on the time between the date of the previous trip andthe scheduled trip, a correlation factor. The correlation factor isskewed towards the non-travel consumption pattern based on the length oftime from the date of the previous trip. For example, the older theprevious trip is, the less weight is given to the travel consumptionpattern during the previous trip. In response to the travel consumptionpattern, the non-travel consumption pattern and the correlation factor,the system determines the consumption rate of media assets usingconsumption device In some embodiments, the travel consumption patternand the non-travel consumption pattern are averaged to determine theconsumption rate.

In some embodiments, the system identifies the scheduled trip indicatedby the profile by analyzing a calendar of a user to identify anout-of-office notification. The system accesses an email database toidentify an electronic communication that is addressed to the user ofthe profile-searching the electronic communications for indications ofscheduled travel accommodations to identify the scheduled trip. Thesystem may access calendar data associated with the profile in order todetermine the particular time period. For example, calendar data mayidentify an arrival time at a location and a departure time from thelocation. As another example, calendar data may identify flightinformation, including scheduled departure and arrival times. The systemdefines the particular time period based on the calendar data.

In some embodiments, the media assets stored on the consumption deviceinclude media assets added to a watchlist. In some embodiments, themedia assets stored on the consumption device are part of a series thatthe user is consuming. For example, a user starts watching a series(e.g., “Friends”) and wants to continue to watch episodes of the serieswhile on a scheduled trip. In some embodiments, based on the progressionpoint of the series upon identifying the scheduled trip, the system mayestimate the consumer's progress by the scheduled trip (i.e., how manyshows the user will have watched before leaving) and the expected amountof content to be consumed on the scheduled trip (i.e., how many showsthe user will watch on the trip). For example, a user is on season 1,episode 4 of “Friends,” with a week to go until his or her trip toCanada; the user is consuming an average of 2 episodes (e.g., 60minutes) a day; therefore, the system determines that user will consume7 episodes (e.g., 3.5 hours) of the series “Friends” and will be atepisode 11 before the scheduled trip to Canada, where the show “Friends”is not available. The system will then determine that the consumer willneed approximately another 7 episodes (e.g., 3.5 hours) of the series“Friends,” from episode 12 to episode 18 and causes the consumptiondevice to store the episodes on the consumption device. Thus, theexpected duration of media assets expected to be consumed during thescheduled trip comprises the series “Friends” from episode 12 to episode18. In some embodiments, the system may include a buffer on each side ofthe downloaded episode and download an additional episode at thebeginning and end of the expected duration of media assets expected tobe consumed during the scheduled trip.

In some embodiments, the system calculates the total play duration ofmedia assets downloaded on the consumption device by determining aportion of the expected duration of media assets consumed before thescheduled trip. From the example discussed above, the consumer devicepresents more episodes than expected, and the progression point beforethe scheduled trip to Canada, where the show “Friends” is not available,is through episode 14, i.e., up to episode 15. Based on the progressionpoint of the consumed media assets shifting (i.e., the user watched moreepisodes), the system determines a new progression point of media assetsexpected to be consumed during the scheduled trip. For example, thesystem determines that the user will now consume episodes 15-21 of“Friends.” Based on the new progression point of media assets expectedto be consumed during the scheduled trip, the system deletes the mediaassets already consumed (e.g., episodes 12-14) and stores on theconsumption device additional episodes (e.g., episodes 19-21) of theshow “Friends” to last the duration of the scheduled trip.

In some embodiments, calculating the total play duration of media assetscaused to be stored on the consumption device includes determining a newmedia asset consumption pattern based on the period leading up to thescheduled trip. For example, the system determines a consumption rate aweek before the scheduled trip. Further, the system determines a portionof the expected duration of media assets consumed prior to the scheduledtrip. Based on the new media asset consumption pattern, the amount oftime before the scheduled trip, and the duration of the scheduled trip,the system identifies a new progression point for the number of mediaassets to download on the consumption device.

In some embodiments, the system determines the consumption progress of aseries of media assets before the scheduled trip. In some embodiments,in response to determining that the user started watching a new series,the system determines the predicted progress based on the consumptionpattern. For example, the consumer device plays the series “Friends,”and the user has watched up to episode 4 of “Friends” when the scheduledtrip is identified. Based on identifying the scheduled trip, the systemmay determine how far the user will get to before the trip (i.e., howmany episodes the user will watch) and how far the user will get toduring the trip (i.e., how many episodes the user will watch). Further,the system determines the time remaining before the scheduled trip. Forexample, the consumer departs for the scheduled trip in 7 days. Thesystem identifies based on the media asset consumption pattern (e.g.,approximately 60 minutes per day) and the time remaining before thescheduled trip (e.g., 7 days) the expected progression point (e.g., upto episode 11) of media assets before the scheduled trip. The systemstores, based on the expected progression point (e.g., up to episode 11)of media assets before the scheduled trip, episodes of media assets fromthe expected progression point (e.g., episode 11) of media assets to theexpected progression point at the end of trip (e.g., up to episode 18)of media assets.

In some embodiments, the system further determines, based on a firstprogression point within the presentation of a respective media asset ofa plurality of media assets, a second progression point within thepresentation of a respective media asset of a plurality of media assetsexpected to be consumed during the scheduled trip. For example, thesystem determines that the consumer will have a second progression pointwithin the presentation of a respective media asset of a plurality ofmedia assets of approximately 3.5 hours during an upcoming scheduledtrip. Based on the expected second progression point within thepresentation of a respective media asset of the plurality of mediaassets during the scheduled trip, the system may recommend media assetsto last the expected duration of consumption time during the scheduledtrip. The recommendations are identified by comparing thecharacteristics of each available content item to a profile associatedwith the user. For example, the profile may include specific contentcharacteristics preferred by the user or a listing of content previouslywatched by the user. Characteristics of each available content item arecompared with the preferred content characteristics or withcharacteristics of recently watched content to determine if a particularcontent item should be recommended.

In some embodiments, the system may determine additional usersassociated with the profile are expected to be on the scheduled trip.Based on the additional users associated with the profile expected to beon the scheduled trip, the system may consider the consumption patternof the additional users to determine the expected duration of mediaassets expected to be consumed during the scheduled trip.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other objects and advantages of the disclosure will beapparent upon consideration of the following detailed description, takenin conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like referencecharacters refer to like parts throughout, and in which:

FIG. 1 shows an illustrative example of a system for dynamicallyoptimizing content for consumption for a scheduled trip based on mediaassets being consumed, in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure;

FIG. 2 shows an illustrative embodiment of a display screen that may beused to provide media guidance application listings and other mediaguidance information, in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure;

FIG. 3 shows another illustrative embodiment of a display screen thatmay be used to provide media guidance application listings, inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 4 depicts exemplary systems, servers and related hardware fordynamically optimizing content for consumption for a scheduled trip, inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 5 depicts exemplary systems, servers and related hardware fordynamically optimizing content for consumption for a scheduled trip, inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 6 depicts an illustrative example of a system of user devices aspart of an account that may share content between each other whencontent is restricted due to geographical restriction, in accordancewith some embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 7 depicts an illustrative flowchart of a process for dynamicallyoptimizing content for consumption for a scheduled trip, in accordancewith some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 8 is a flowchart of a detailed illustrative process for adjustingthe stored content based on the progression point, in accordance withsome embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 9 is a flowchart representing a process for alerting a user to theavailability of a series for a scheduled trip, in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosure; and

FIG. 10 depicts an illustrative example of optimizing the media assetsfor consumption on the user device based on the scheduled trip byreshuffling the priority, in accordance with some embodiments of thepresent disclosure; and

FIG. 11 depicts an illustrative example of optimizing the media assetsfor consumption on the user device based on the scheduled trip bypre-downloading, in accordance with some embodiments of the presentdisclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1 shows an illustrative example of a scenario for dynamicallyoptimizing content for consumption for a scheduled trip based on mediaassets being consumed, in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure. User equipment 104 is depicted as a tablet but may be anyuser equipment with any functionality described below with respect toFIGS. 2-5 . User equipment 104 includes control circuitry (alsodescribed further below with respect to FIGS. 2-5 ), which executes amedia guidance application (which again is described further below withrespect to FIGS. 2-5 ). The media guidance application may generate fordisplay, either on a display of user equipment 104 or on a display of adifferent device, electronic communication 114 and instruction alert112. Electronic communication 114 may be any electronic communicationthat includes information about a user, such as an email, an MMS or SMSmessage, calendar information input by a user or automatically populatedby the media guidance application, and any other known electroniccommunication or any combination thereof. Information that may be in theform of an information file that is retrieved that contains some or allof this information described as parsed or gleaned from electroniccommunication 114 may also be obtained from a user profile, according tosome embodiments of the disclosure.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application based on theinformation may determine that a user will be traveling. For example,the media guidance application may determine based on electroniccommunication 114 that a user of consumption device 104 will betraveling to Canada. For example, electronic communication 114 may be anemail from an airline company that includes an itinerary. In someembodiments, the electronic communication may simply be an out-of-officeindication in Microsoft outlook. The media guidance application maydetermine that content of the electronic communication references travel(e.g., because the electronic communication is from an airline company,or because the electronic communication indicates a destination (e.g.,Canada) and a travel date, for example, a start time and end time).

The media guidance application may be an aggregator and/or retriever ofmultiple content delivery services. For instance, the media guidanceapplication may be able to access, download, and update viewer profilesvia corresponding application programming interfaces (APIs) for eachservice. In some embodiments, the media guidance application may haveusernames and passwords stored for each individual. In some embodiments,the media guidance application may have access limited to requestingtravel information and enhanced content as needed, e.g., as a privacyconcern. In some embodiments, the media guidance application maycommunicate with a travel application to determine the users will betraveling. For example, the media guidance application can retrievetravel information (e.g., departure date, destination, duration of thetrip, length of flight, etc.) from the travel application system via APIrequest and retrieval. Based on the retrieved information, the mediaguidance application may proceed with optimizing the media assets storedon the consumption device.

The media guidance application may similarly process any electroniccommunication 114. For example, information may be parsed from acalendar entry, an MMS message, a voice communication with another userthat was detected by a user input interface (user input interfaces aredescribed below with respect to FIGS. 2-5 ), or any other communication.Parsing may occur by comparing the text to a database of known wordsthat indicate travel, such as country, state, and city names, airlinenames, train company names, and any other words that indicate travel.Parsing may also occur based on credit card, bank, and purchasestatements (which may indicate that travel was purchased) and by anyother means.

In some embodiments, in response to retrieving the information (e.g.,the identifying of the user traveling to Canada), the media guidanceapplication may access a viewing history of the content the user hasbeen consuming indicated by a profile of the user that indicates aplurality of streaming media that the user consumes. For example, theuser may subscribe to a media streaming service (e.g., Spotify for musicstreaming, Netflix for video streaming), or to an aggregate servicewhere the user can access streaming media from other media streamingservices. Video streaming services commonly allow users to populate awatch list, which is a list of media that the user desires to watch inthe near future. In some embodiments, the user, without adding thecontent to the watch list, may watch a series (e.g., the show “Friends”)or a collection of movies (e.g., a collection of “Rocky” movies or the“Terminator” movie series). In some embodiments, the playlist may bebased on some form of recommendation. For example, if the user watchesseason 1 of “The Office,” the playlist may include season 2 of “TheOffice.” The media guidance application may suggest content fordownloading to the consumption device for improved consumer engagementbased on the recent consumption. The suggestions may further be based onthe user profile and tailored to the demographic of the user profile. Insome embodiments, the system may suggest what the user should downloadbased on their recent consumption pattern. For example, if there's a“kids” profile associated with the account, then content items from that“catalog” may also be recommended for download or automaticallydownloaded. The playlists are also often used in video services andmusic services, and playlists may indicate media that users wish toconsume in the near future in a specified order.

Using any of these lists, the user may proactively maintain a list ofmedia he or she wishes to consume in the future. Alternatively, aprofile may indicate media that the user is likely to want to consume inthe future. For example, a profile may indicate that a user generallyviews episodes of a certain series within a few days of when thoseepisodes are available or may indicate that a user has begun viewingsome episodes of a series and thus is likely to desire continued accessto the remaining episodes of the series.

On the basis of these lists or based on information in the user'sprofile, the media guidance application may determine that a user enjoysa particular show or a collection of movies but will not be able tostream it or them due to the scheduled trip. For example, in someembodiments, the media guidance application may compare datacorresponding to each streaming media asset of the plurality ofstreaming media assets to a database to determine whether each streamingmedia asset of the plurality of streaming media assets is accessible tothe user during the scheduled trip for the duration of the period. Thedata that may be compared to the database may be any type of datacorresponding to media assets, such as title, production company,distribution company, or any other data that may be used as a basis fora content restriction by a media provider such as a media streamingprovider.

In some embodiments, the identified media assets (e.g., shows or movies)either from a list or recommended may not all be available at adestination. For example, some of the shows or movies may be availableand some may be restricted. Based on identifying the movies that theuser is likely to watch (based on a watch list or recommended list), thesystem may assign an order to the movies. In response to identifying ascheduled trip to a destination where one or more of the movies from theordered list is not available, the system may reorder or reshuffle themovies. For example, the system may reshuffle the movies not availableat the destination before the scheduled trip. In another example, themovies may be reordered for the consumer after the trip. The order ofconsuming the movies may be determined based on the consumer pattern.Based on determining that some movies may not be available, the systemmay optimize the order of the movies to ensure that the user is able toview all of the movies. That is, the priority of the movies may bereshuffled. In this instance, the user wants to consume four movies fromthe series of “Rocky” movies, however, when at the destination, only 2of the movies are available, and the other 2 movies are restricted. Forthat reason, the media device may reshuffle the movies such that theconsumer is able to watch the movies restricted at the destinationbefore the scheduled trip and the remaining two movies are consumed atthe destination. In another example, the system determines that movies 2and 3 will be unavailable at the destination. So, the system shufflesthe priority of the watch list so that movies 2 and 3 are moved to thetop of the watch list, and the user may consume them before he or shetravels. The other movies 1 and 4 are available at the destination aswell, therefore may be consumed at leisure. In some embodiments, thesystem may maintain the movies' order and instead cause the consumptiondevice to download the movies. For example, the four “Rocky” movies mayneed to be consumed in sequence to avoid misunderstanding. Therefore,the consumption device may download the movies that are likely to beconsumed during the scheduled trip. For example, movies 2 and 3 may bedownloaded for consumption during the scheduled trip.

In some embodiments, the plurality of streaming media is associated witha particular streaming media provider (e.g., Netflix, which providesstreaming videos, or Spotify, which provides streaming music). Thedifferent content is often due to licensing restrictions placed oncontent. For example, media streaming providers like Netflix providedifferent content to subscribers in different countries wheredistribution is by the owners of the media. Thus, the database mayindicate geographic content restrictions for the particular streamingmedia provider, such as associations between media assets and variouscountries and locations in which the media is available or is notavailable. The media guidance application may, when determining that thesubset of the plurality of media is or is not accessible to the user onthe scheduled trip for the duration of the period of time, identify thatmedia assets of the subset are indicated as available or restricted at adestination of the scheduled trip in the reference databases.

The media guidance application may retrieve information about ascheduled trip from travel sources. For example, a media guidanceapplication may communicate with a travel application (e.g., Expedia) todetermine the users will be traveling. For example, the media guidanceapplication can retrieve travel information (e.g., departure date,destination, duration of the trip, length of flight, etc.) The mediaguidance application may retrieve a user consumption pattern based onthe user's viewing habits. The media guidance application may alert theuser of a scheduled trip and the need to optimize the media assetsdownloaded on the consumption device. In some embodiments, the mediaguidance application may proceed to optimize the storage on theconsumption device 104 to maximize the amount of content stored for theduration of the scheduled trip where the content is not available in adestination location.

The media guidance application may identify that a first media assetfrom a first media source is being played at the user equipment. Forexample, the user may be watching a tennis match from the ESPN channel,e.g., shown as the currently played media asset 108. In someembodiments, in response to determining that the user started watching anew series, the system may determine a predicted progression point basedon the consumption pattern and a future time. The media guidanceapplication may then retrieve metadata corresponding to the first mediaasset and user behavioral data from a user profile. For example, themedia guidance application may retrieve metadata including the programtitle, closed captioning data, a program description, informationrelating to the event such as the event schedule (e.g., the schedule ofthe tennis event, etc.), and/or the like. For another example, the mediaguidance application may obtain user behavioral data from the userprofile, including but not limited to user preference data (e.g.,frequently watched programs or channels, user bookmarked channels ormedia assets, categories that user frequently watches, etc.), userviewing history (e.g., user viewing pattern, unfinished VOD media assetsor previously stored media assets, and/or the like). For example, asshown in FIG. 1 , the consumption pattern chart 103 is based on thewatching history of the user associated with the consumption device. Theconsumption pattern chart 103 illustrates that the user consumes theestimated consumption time over the number of days. For example, if theuser watches a total of 21 hours a week, then the consumption pattern is21 hours by 7 days to equal 3 hours of consumption time. In theillustrative scenario, the consumption device 104 communicates withserver 102 to access the user profile consumption pattern 106. In theuser profile consumption pattern 106, the media guidance applicationdetermines the estimated consumption time as stored for the consumer andthe content being consumed. In some embodiments, the consumption patternmay be content-specific, for example, for one show, the consumer maywatch 2 hours while another show may only be an average of half an hour.In the illustrative example, the consumer is watching the show “Friends”and is on Season 1 Episode 2; the media guidance application alsodetermines that the consumption speed at which the episodes are beingconsumed is 1 episode per day. The consumption speed may be trackedbased on time or episodes.

The media guidance application may then calculate an estimatedconsumption pattern that may be extrapolated to determine the amount ofcontent the user is likely to consume over a period. As shown in userprogression pattern 108, the media guidance application may identify,based on the consumption pattern, a first progression point within apresentation of a respective media asset of a plurality of media assetsat the scheduled start time. For example, the media guidance applicationmay predict based on a scheduled trip (e.g., the current date of June 27and date the trip starts as of July 4), thus 7 days, and the consumptionpatterns of (1 episode per day) that the first progression point islikely to be episode 9. Before the trip starts, the user is likely towatch up to episode 9 of “Friends.” In response to identifying the firstprogression point as episode 9, the media guidance application thenidentifies, based on the consumption pattern, a second progression pointin the respective media asset of the plurality of media assets by thescheduled end time. For example, the media guidance application maypredict based on a scheduled trip (e.g., the first progression point(i.e., in the future) of July 4 and date the trip ends as of July 11),thus 7 days, and the consumption patterns of (1 episode per day) thatthe second progression point (i.e., in the future) is likely to beepisode 16, as to the number of media assets that are predicted to beconsumed based at least in part on the retrieved metadata and theconsumption pattern. By the time the trip ends, the user will likelywatch up to episode 16 of “Friends.” In response to identifying thesetwo progression points, the device downloads and stores on the deviceepisodes 10-16 for the duration of the trip. The media guidanceapplication may inform the user of this fact by way of an alert. Thisdownload may be performed during off-peak hours and when the device isin sleep mode or otherwise not employed in other tasks. Further,employing such a task allows the device to maintain space for otheractivities and does not arbitrarily contain large stored content.

Continuing in FIG. 1 before the user departs for the trip, the mediaguidance application then proceeds to process 120, and at 124 confirmsthat the current progression point matches the first progression pointas initially predicted and as the basis for downloading episodes of themedia asset, to optimize the amount of content downloaded for a tripbased on the progress of consuming the programming. For example, themedia guidance application determines that the user has reached thepredicted point in the series to continue watching the series when atthe destination of the scheduled trip. For example, the media guidanceapplication may determine that the last episode consumed (heard,watched, read) is the episode that was predicted to be completed (“Yes”at 124), then the media guidance application continues without makingany adjustments to the stored media assets. If, on the other hand, themedia guidance application determines that the last episode consumed(heard, watched, read) is greater or less than the episode that waspredicted (first progression point) to be completed (“No” at 124), thenat 126, the media guidance application causes to store the respectivemedia assets from the plurality of media assets between the currentprogression point and second progression point. For example, the mediaguidance application adjusts the media assets stored on the device basedon the difference between the first progression point and the currentprogression point. For example, when the user is ahead of schedule, themedia guidance application deletes media assets already consumed anddownloads additional upcoming media assets of the series back end or thewatch list. In another example, the device deletes three episodes theuser has seen and downloads equivalent episodes sequentially followingthe episodes already downloaded. On the other hand, when the user isbehind schedule, the media guidance application deletes media assetsfrom the end of the series or the watch list and downloads additionalmedia assets following the last episode consumed. In another example,the device deletes the last three episodes in the sequence to free upspace and downloads three episodes from the current progression point ofthe list sequentially following the episodes already consumed by theuser. Furthermore, in some embodiments, the media guidance applicationmay perform the comparison (and/or any determinations) prior to thescheduled start time of the scheduled trip. Alternatively oradditionally, the media guidance application may continually monitor theprogress of the user to inform him or her of whether or not he or shewill finish the media asset (or whether the unconsumed portion will needto be consumed later or on a different device) before departing for thescheduled trip. In some embodiments, a portion of the media asset,corresponding to the unconsumed content remaining in the media asset, isavailable for download to a second device to be shared to free up spacefor additional media assets to be downloaded. For example, in responseto determining that the user may not be able to consume the entirety ofthe media asset, the media guidance application may allow the user toaccess the unconsumed portion on a second device. In some embodiments,the indication may be simultaneously displayed with the media listing(e.g., in order to prompt the user to select the media asset forplayback as discussed above).

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine thatthe user generally views media in the company of friends or family. Themedia guidance application may consider watch lists or future viewingpreferences of the friends or family when generating for display alert114, and may incorporate the viewing preferences of the friends orfamily in alert 114.

The amount of content available to users in any given content deliverysystem can be substantial; however, the hardware may be limited, and thedata associated with the content may cause further processing delays tothe hardware. Thus what is needed is a way to optimize the amount ofcontent stored on the device without limiting the device for otherpurposes, that is, so that a user doesn't have to bring one device forconsuming content and another device for other tasks. It is necessary toprovide a system and methods of operation of a device by dynamicallyoptimizing how much (e.g., number of episodes of a show or number ofmovies stored) of the content of the downloadable streaming media issaved on the consumer device to allows users to efficiently storecontent on the device without wasting storage space. An application thatprovides such guidance is referred to herein as a media guidanceapplication.

FIG. 2 shows an illustrative embodiment of a display screen that may beused to provide media guidance application listings and other mediaguidance information, in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure. Display 200 may include grid 202 with: (1) a column ofchannel/content type identifiers 204, where each channel/content typeidentifier (which is a cell in the column) identifies a differentchannel or content type available; and (2) a row of time identifiers206, where each time identifier (which is a cell in the row) identifiesa time block of programming. Grid 202 also includes cells of programlistings, such as program listing 208, where each listing provides thetitle of the program provided on the listing's associated channel andtime. With a user input device, a user can select program listings bymoving highlight region 210. Information relating to the program listingselected by highlight region 210 may be provided in program informationregion 212. Region 212 may include, for example, the program title, theprogram description, the time the program is provided (if applicable),the channel the program is on (if applicable), the program's rating, andother desired information.

In addition to providing access to linear programming (e.g., contentthat is scheduled to be transmitted to a plurality of user equipmentdevices at a predetermined time and is provided according to aschedule), the media guidance application also provides access tonon-linear programming (e.g., content accessible to a user equipmentdevice at any time and is not provided according to a schedule).Non-linear programming may include content from different contentsources including on-demand content (e.g., VOD), Internet content (e.g.,streaming media, downloadable media, etc.), locally stored content(e.g., content stored on any user equipment device described above orother storage devices), or other time-independent content. On-demandcontent may include movies or any other content provided by a particularcontent provider (e.g., HBO On Demand providing “The Sopranos” and “CurbYour Enthusiasm”). HBO ON DEMAND is a service mark owned by Time WarnerCompany L.P. et al. and THE SOPRANOS and CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM aretrademarks owned by the Home Box Office, Inc. Internet content mayinclude web events, such as a chat session or Webcast, or contentavailable on-demand as streaming content or downloadable content throughan Internet web site or other Internet access (e.g., FTP).

Grid 202 may provide media guidance data for non-linear programmingincluding on-demand listing 214, recorded content listing 216, andInternet content listing 218. A display combining media guidance datafor content from different types of content sources is sometimesreferred to as a “mixed-media” display. Various permutations of thetypes of media guidance data that may be displayed that are differentthan display 200 may be based on user selection or guidance applicationdefinition (e.g., a display of only recorded and broadcast listings,only on-demand and broadcast listings, etc.). As illustrated, listings214, 216, and 218 are shown as spanning the entire time block displayedin grid 202. These listings may provide access to a display dedicated toon-demand listings, recorded listings, and recorded listings or Internetlistings, respectively. In some embodiments, listings for these contenttypes may be included directly in grid 202. Additional media guidancedata may be displayed in response to the user selecting one of thenavigational icons 220. (Pressing an arrow key on a user input devicemay similarly affect the display as selecting navigational icons 220.)

Display 200 may also include video region 222, and options region 226.Video region 222 may allow the user to view and/or preview programs thatare currently available, will be available, or were available to theuser. The content of video region 222 may correspond to, or beindependent of, one of the listings displayed in grid 202.

Options region 226 may allow the user to access different types ofcontent, media guidance application displays, and/or media guidanceapplication features. Options region 226 may be part of display 200 (andother display screens described herein), or may be invoked by a user byselecting an on-screen option or pressing a dedicated or assignablebutton on a user input device. The selectable options within optionsregion 226 may concern features related to program listings in grid 202or may include options available from the main menu display. Featuresrelated to program listings may include searching for other air times orways of receiving a program, recording a program, enabling seriesrecording of a program, setting program and/or channel as a favorite,purchasing a program, or other features. Options available from a mainmenu display may include search options, VOD options, parental controloptions, Internet options, cloud-based options, device synchronizationoptions, second screen device options, options to access various typesof media guidance data displays, options to subscribe to a premiumservice, options to edit a user's profile, options to access a browseoverlay, or other options.

The media guidance application may be personalized based on a user'spreferences. A personalized media guidance application allows a user tocustomize displays and features to create a personalized “experience”with the media guidance application. This personalized experience may becreated by allowing a user to input these customizations and/or by themedia guidance application monitoring user activity to determine varioususer preferences. Users may access their personalized guidanceapplication by logging in or otherwise identifying themselves to theguidance application. Customization of the media guidance applicationmay be made in accordance with a user profile. The customizations mayinclude varying presentation schemes (e.g., color scheme of displays,font size of text, etc.), aspects of content listings displayed (e.g.,only HDTV or only 2D programming, user-specified broadcast channelsbased on favorite channel selections, re-ordering the display ofchannels, recommended content, etc.), desired recording features (e.g.,recording or series recordings for particular users, recording quality,etc.), parental control settings, customized presentation of Internetcontent (e.g., presentation of social media content, email,electronically delivered articles, etc.) and other desiredcustomizations.

The media guidance application may allow a user to provide user profileinformation or may automatically compile user profile information. Themedia guidance application may, for example, monitor the content theuser accesses and/or other interactions the user may have with theguidance application. Additionally, the media guidance application mayobtain all or part of other user profiles that are related to aparticular user (e.g., from other web sites on the Internet the useraccesses, such as www.xperi.com, from other media guidance applicationsthe user accesses, from other interactive applications the useraccesses, from another user equipment device of the user, etc.), and/orobtain information about the user from other sources that the mediaguidance application may access. As a result, a user can be providedwith a unified guidance application experience across the user'sdifferent user equipment devices. This type of user experience isdescribed in greater detail below in connection with FIG. 5 . The mediaguidance application may allow an optimization module configured tooperate on the consumption device to run in the background and optimizethe amount of content stored on the consumption device. The optimizationmodule may operate as a smart storage driver that determines the amountof content to store on the device for the expected duration of time theuser is on a scheduled trip.

FIG. 3 shows another illustrative embodiment of a display screen thatmay be used to provide media guidance application listings, inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure. Another displayarrangement for providing media guidance is shown in FIG. 3 . Videomosaic display 300 includes selectable options 302 for contentinformation organized based on content type, genre, and/or otherorganization criteria. In display 300, television listings option 304 isselected, thus providing listings 306, 308, 310, and 312 as broadcastprogram listings. In display 300 the listings may provide graphicalimages including cover art, still images from the content, video clippreviews, live video from the content, or other types of content thatindicate to a user the content being described by the media guidancedata in the listing. Each of the graphical listings may also beaccompanied by text to provide further information about the contentassociated with the listing. For example, listing 308 may include morethan one portion.

The listings in display 300 are of different sizes (i.e., listing 306 islarger than listings 308, 310, and 312), but all the listings may be thesame size if desired. Listings may be of different sizes or graphicallyaccentuated to indicate degrees of interest to the user or to emphasizecertain content, as desired by the content provider or based on userpreferences. Listing 306 may provide a notification to alert him or herthat something he or she has been watching may not be available at thedestination of the scheduled trip. For example, the notification mayindicate the following “The shows you have been watching are notavailable in Canada. The system may download enough episodes for theduration of your trip.” Based on this notification, listings 308-312 maybe episodes that are stored on the consumption device. Various systemsand methods for graphically accentuating content listings are discussedin, for example, Yates, U.S. Patent Application Publication No.2010/0153885, filed Nov. 12, 2009, which is hereby incorporated byreference herein in its entirety.

FIG. 4 depicts exemplary systems, servers and related hardware foroptimizing downloaded media assets unavailable for a scheduled tripbased on the expected duration of media assets expected to be consumedduring the scheduled trip, in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure. A user may access content and the media interfaceapplication (and its display screens described above and below) from oneor more of their user equipment devices. Each device may connect to thecommunication network where content may be transmitted, processed, andpushed out. FIG. 4 shows a generalized embodiment of illustrative userequipment device 400. More specific implementations of user equipmentdevices are discussed above in connection with FIG. 5 . User equipmentdevice 400 may receive content and data via input/output (I/O) path 416.I/O path 416 may provide content (e.g., broadcast programming, on-demandprogramming, Internet content, content available over a local areanetwork (LAN) or wide area network (WAN), and/or other content) and datato control circuitry 412, which includes processing circuitry 410 andstorage 414. Control circuitry 412 may be used to send and receivecommands, requests, and other suitable data using I/O path 416.

Control circuitry 412 may be based on any suitable processing circuitrysuch as processing circuitry 410. As referred to herein, processingcircuitry should be understood to mean circuitry based on one or moremicroprocessors, microcontrollers, digital signal processors,programmable logic devices, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs),application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), etc., and may includea multi-core processor (e.g., dual-core, quad-core, hexa-core, or anysuitable number of cores) or supercomputer. In some embodiments,processing circuitry may be distributed across multiple separateprocessors or processing units. In some embodiments, control circuitry412 executes instructions for a media interface application stored inmemory (i.e., storage 414). Specifically, control circuitry 412 may beinstructed by the user interface application to perform the functionsdiscussed above and below. For example, the user interface applicationmay provide instructions to control circuitry 412 to generate the videoand audio content for display. In some implementations, any actionperformed by control circuitry 412 may be based on instructions receivedfrom the user interface application.

In client/server-based embodiments, control circuitry 412 may includecommunications circuitry suitable for communicating with a contentapplication server or other networks or servers. The instructions forcarrying out the above-mentioned functionality may be stored on thecontent application server. Communications circuitry may include a cablemodem, an integrated-services digital network (ISDN) modem, a digitalsubscriber line (DSL) modem, a telephone modem, Ethernet card, or awireless modem for communications with other equipment, or any othersuitable communications circuitry. Such communications may involve theInternet or any other suitable communications networks or paths (whichare described in more detail in connection with FIG. 5 ). In someembodiments, an optimization module 408 is provided in the userequipment device 400. The optimization module 408 may be used forprocessing the amount of content stored on the consumer device and theuser's consumption pattern to maintain an ample amount of content on thedevice without wasting storage space by over downloading content.Further, communications circuitry may include circuitry that enablespeer-to-peer communication of user equipment devices or communication ofuser equipment devices in locations remote from each other (described inmore detail below).

Memory may be an electronic storage device provided as storage 414 thatis part of control circuitry 412. As referred to herein, the phrase“electronic storage device” or “storage device” should be understood tomean any device for storing electronic data, computer software, orfirmware, such as random-access memory, read-only memory, hard drives,optical drives, digital video disc (DVD) recorders, compact disc (CD)recorders, BLU-RAY disc (BD) recorders, BLU-RAY 3D disc recorders,digital video recorders (DVR, sometimes called a personal videorecorder, or PVR), solid state devices, quantum storage devices, gamingconsoles, gaming media, or any other suitable fixed or removable storagedevices, and/or any combination of the same. Storage 414 may be used tostore various types of content described herein as well as content dataand content application data that are described above. Nonvolatilememory may also be used (e.g., to launch a boot-up routine and otherinstructions). Cloud-based storage may be used to supplement storage 414or instead of storage 414.

Control circuitry 412 may include video generating circuitry and tuningcircuitry, such as one or more analog tuners, one or more MPEG-2decoders or other digital decoding circuitry, high-definition tuners, orany other suitable tuning or video circuits or combinations of suchcircuits. Encoding circuitry (e.g., for converting over-the-air, analog,or digital signals to MPEG signals for storage) may also be provided.Control circuitry 412 may also include scaler circuitry for upconvertingand down-converting content into the preferred output format of the userequipment device 400. Control Circuitry 412 may also includedigital-to-analog converter circuitry and analog-to-digital convertercircuitry for converting between digital and analog signals. The tuningand encoding circuitry may be used by the user equipment device toreceive and to display, play, or record content.

In one embodiment, speakers 406 may be provided as integrated with otherelements of user equipment device 400 or may be stand-alone units. Theaudio and other content displayed on display 404 may be played throughspeakers 406. In some embodiments, the audio may be distributed to areceiver (not shown), which processes and outputs the audio via speakers406.

In some embodiments, a sensor (not shown) is provided in the userequipment device 400. The sensor may be used to monitor, identify, anddetermine user presence in the proximity of the user device. Forexample, the user interface application running on a user equipmentdevice may receive status data from the sensor, servers, or any otherequipment device indicating the status of the group watch party. Inparticular, a notification may be displayed on the user equipment devicethat a watch party started and that the user is missing out on the funin the cousin's group.

The user interface application may be implemented using any suitablearchitecture. For example, it may be a stand-alone application whollyimplemented on user equipment device 400. In such an approach,instructions of the application are stored locally (e.g., in storage414), and data for use by the application is downloaded on a periodicbasis (e.g., from an out-of-band feed, from an Internet resource, orusing another suitable approach). Control circuitry 412 may retrieveinstructions of the application from storage 414 and process theinstructions to generate any of the displays discussed herein. Based onthe processed instructions, control circuitry 412 may determine whataction to perform when input is received from input interface 402. Forexample, the movement of a cursor on an audio user interface element maybe indicated by the processed instructions when input interface 402indicates that a user interface 118 was selected.

In some embodiments, the user interface application is aclient/server-based application. Data for use by a thick or thin clientimplemented on user equipment device 400 is retrieved on-demand and incollaboration with other devices from the first group by issuingrequests to a server remote to the user equipment device 400. In oneexample of a client/server-based content application, control circuitry412 runs a web browser that interprets web pages provided by a remoteserver. For example, the remote server may store the instructions forthe application in a storage device. The remote server may process thestored instructions using circuitry (e.g., control circuitry 412) andgenerate the displays discussed above and below. The client device mayreceive the displays generated by the remote server and may display thecontent of the displays locally on user equipment device 400 that issynchronized with the content of the displays on other equipment devices400 associated in the first group. This way, the processing of theinstructions is performed remotely by the server while the resultingdisplays are provided locally on user equipment device 400. Userequipment device 400 may receive inputs from the user via inputinterface 402 and transmit those inputs to the remote server forprocessing and generating the corresponding displays. For example, userequipment device 400 may transmit, via antenna 408, communication to theremote server, indicating that a user interface element was selected viainput interface 402. The remote server may process instructions inaccordance with that input and generate a display of content identifiersassociated with the selected user interface element as described ingreater detail with reference to FIG. 7 . The generated display is thentransmitted to the user equipment device 400 for concurrent presentationto the user as well as to other members in the group watch.

In some embodiments, the user interface application is downloaded andinterpreted or otherwise run by an interpreter or virtual machine (runby control circuitry 412). In some embodiments, the user interfaceapplication may be encoded in the ETV Binary Interchange Format (EBIF),received by control circuitry 412 as part of a suitable feed, andinterpreted by a user agent running on control circuitry 412. Forexample, the user interface application may be an EBIF application. Insome embodiments, the user interface application may be defined by aseries of JAVA-based files that are received and run by a local virtualmachine or other suitable middleware executed by control circuitry 412.In some of such embodiments (e.g., those employing MPEG-2 or otherdigital media encoding schemes), the user interface application may be,for example, encoded and transmitted in a MPEG-2 object carousel withthe MPEG audio of a program.

User equipment device 400 of FIG. 4 can be implemented in system 500 ofFIG. 5 as user media equipment 514, computer equipment 518, wirelessuser communications device 522 or any other type of user equipmentsuitable for accessing content, such as a non-portable gaming machine.For simplicity, these devices may be referred to herein collectively asuser equipment or user equipment devices and may be substantiallysimilar to user equipment devices described above. User equipmentdevices, on which a user interface application may be implemented, mayfunction as stand-alone devices or may be part of a network of devices.Various network configurations of devices may be implemented and arediscussed in more detail below.

FIG. 5 depicts exemplary systems, servers and related hardware forproviding summaries of multiple contents from group watching aconcurrent presentation, in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure. A user equipment device utilizing at least some of thesystem features described above in connection with FIG. 5 may not beclassified solely as user media equipment 514, computer equipment 516,or a wireless user communications device 522. For example, user mediaequipment 514 may, like some computer equipment 516, beInternet-enabled, allowing for access to Internet content, whilewireless user computer equipment 522 may, like some user media equipment514, include a tuner allowing for access to media programming. The userinterface application may have the same layout on various types of userequipment or may be tailored to the display capabilities of the userequipment. For example, on wireless user computer equipment 516, theuser interface application may be provided as a website accessed by aweb browser. In another example, the user interface application may bescaled down for wireless user communications devices 522.

The user equipment devices may be coupled to communications network 510.Communications network 510 may be one or more networks including theInternet, a mobile phone network, mobile voice or data network (e.g., a4G, 5G or LTE network), cable network, public switched telephone networkor other types of communications network or combinations ofcommunications networks.

System 500 includes media asset source 502 and content reaction datasource 504 coupled to communications network 510. Communications withthe media asset source 502 and the data source 504 may be exchanged overone or more communications paths but are shown as a single path in FIG.5 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing. Although communications betweensources 502 and 504 with user equipment devices 514, 516, and 522 areshown through communications network 510, in some embodiments, mediaasset sources 502 and media guidance data source 504 may communicatedirectly with user equipment devices 514, 516, and 522.

Media asset source 502 may include one or more types of contentdistribution equipment including a media distribution facility,satellite distribution facility, programming sources, intermediatedistribution facilities and/or servers, Internet providers, on-demandmedia servers, and other content providers. Media guidance data source504 may provide content data, such as the audio described above. Mediacontent interface application data may be provided to the user equipmentdevices using any suitable approach. In some embodiments, media contentinterface data from media guidance data source 504 may be provided tousers' equipment using a client/server approach. For example, a userequipment device may pull content data from a server, or a server maypresent the content data to a user equipment device. Media guidance datasource 504 may provide user equipment devices 514, 516 and 522 thecontent reactions received from user equipment devices 514, 516 and 522or any other user devices including the interface application itself orsoftware updates for the user interface application.

It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of FIGS. 8-9 may beused with any other embodiment of this disclosure. In addition, thesteps and descriptions are described in relation to FIGS. 8-10 may bedone in alternative orders or in parallel to further the purposes ofthis disclosure. Any of these steps may also be skipped or omitted fromthe process. Furthermore, it should be noted that any of the devices orequipment discussed in relation to FIGS. 4-5 could be used to performone or more of the steps in FIGS. 8-9 .

FIG. 6 depicts an illustrative example of a system of user devices aspart of an account that may share content among them when content isrestricted due to geographical restriction, in accordance with someembodiments of the present disclosure. FIG. 6 shows a generalizedembodiment of an illustrative system 600, in which a user account 601 ofusers or profiles is causing for presentation a content item onindividual user devices, for example, the user equipment devices 602 and605, and on which the system 100 of FIG. 1 can be implemented. Byemploying multiple devices, the devices together may contain storage foradditional media assets that may be transmitted back and forth betweenthe devices even when on the destination with restrictions on the mediaasset. The exemplary user devices 602 and 605 may communicate with eachother over a local area network where they may share content stored oneach device to avoid downloading twice. System 600 includes an array ofuser devices, which may be linked by unique profiles 604 (e.g., 604 a,604 b, etc.), that all fall under the user account and may cause forpresentation of the content item (e.g., 603 a, 603 b, etc.), with eachcontent device being configured to store content. By employing multipledevices, the devices together may contain storage for additional mediaassets that may be transmitted back and forth even at a destination withrestrictions on the media asset. In some embodiments, the user device(e.g., first device 602, etc.) may be coupled to storage device 606,server 608 and a second user device 605 providing a selection to sharecontent. The devices can communicate bidirectionally with other systems.Communications with the user devices and storage device 606 may beexchanged over one or more communications paths but are shown as asingle path in FIG. 6 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing. All of thecommunication between the user devices 602 and 605 in the user account,and servers joining the user account may be through one or more networksincluding the Internet, a mobile phone network, mobile voice or datanetwork (e.g., a 4G, 5G or LTE network), or other types ofcommunications network or combinations of communications networks.

In some embodiments, the system permits sharing of the media assetsstored on a first device with a second device 602 and 605. For example,when both devices are part of an account profile, that is, if the systemknows that Profile A associated with the account downloaded movies 1, 2,and 3, then there would be no need to download movies 1, 2, and 3 to thedevice associated with Profile B. Both devices are tied to the sameaccount (if such movies also meet Profile B's preferences). This way,users traveling together can download more content and not waste storagespace on their devices. For these specific content items, the system canenable the transfer of content between the two devices (if the usersdon't want to swap devices to watch content that was not downloaded totheir device). Specifically, the system can add Digital RightsManagement (DRM) restriction to enable only Profile B to transfer/watchthe content on their device.

FIG. 7 depicts an illustrative flowchart of a process for dynamicallyoptimizing content for consumption for a scheduled trip, in accordancewith some embodiments of the disclosure. It should be noted that process700 or any step thereof could be performed on, or provided by, any ofthe devices shown in FIGS. 4, 5 . For example, process 700 may beexecuted by control circuitry 412 as instructed by a media guidanceapplication implemented on a user device (e.g., user equipment devices514, 516, and/or 522 (FIG. 5 )) in order to optimize the amount ofcontent stored on the consumption device. In addition, one or more stepsof process 700 may be incorporated into or combined with one or moresteps of any other process or embodiment (e.g., as described in relationto FIGS. 6 and 8-9 )).

At 702, the media guidance application retrieves information from a userprofile, and the information comprises a scheduled trip and aconsumption pattern. For example, the scheduled trip may include ascheduled start time and a scheduled end time. For example, the systemdetermines that the user travels to Canada in 7 days for a 7-day stay.The system calculates based on the asset consumption pattern (e.g., 1hour consumption rate) a first progression point of 7 hours of contentand the duration (e.g., 7 days) of the scheduled trip (e.g., Canada) anexpected duration of media assets expected to be consumed during thescheduled trip (e.g., 7 hours of content).

Then, at 704, the media guidance application identifies a firstprogression point within the presentation of a respective media asset ofa plurality of media assets at the scheduled trip start time. Forexample, the consumer device associated with the user profile isconsuming episode 2 of season 1 of “Friends” and identifies based on thetimeline that in 1 week (e.g., scheduled start time of trip) progressionpoint to which the user is likely to get to before departing is episode9. The media guidance application accesses user viewing history (e.g.,user viewing pattern, unfinished VOD media assets or previously storedmedia assets, and/or the like). For example, as shown in FIG. 1 , theconsumption pattern chart 103 is based on the watching history of theuser associated with the consumption device. The consumption patternchart 103 illustrates that the user consumes the estimated consumptiontime over the number of days. If the media guidance applicationidentifies the first progression point (“Yes” at 704), then, at 706, themedia guidance application identifies a second progression point in therespective media asset of the plurality of media assets by the scheduledtrip end time. If, on the other hand, the media guidance applicationdoes not identify the first progression point (“No” at 702), then theoptimization step ends. Returning to 706, if the media guidanceapplication identifies a second progression point by the scheduled tripend time (“Yes” at 706), then at 708, the media guidance applicationcauses the consumption device to store the respective media assets thatfall between the first and second progression point. On the other hand,if the media guidance application does not identify a second progressionpoint by the scheduled trip end time (“No” at 706), then theoptimization step ends.

Continuing at 710, at a point before departing for the trip, which canbe a day, or an hour or another time when the consumer device is withina network connection, the media guidance application determines whetherthe current progression point matches the first progression point asinitially predicted and as the basis for downloading episodes of themedia asset, in order to optimize the amount of content downloaded forthe scheduled trip based on the progress of consuming the programming.For example, the media guidance application may determine that the userhas reached the predicted point in the series to continue watching theseries when at the destination of the scheduled trip. For example, ifthe media guidance application determines that the last episode consumed(heard, watched, read) is the episode that was predicted to be completed(“Yes” at 710), then the optimization step ends and the media guidanceapplication continues without making any adjustments to the stored mediaassets. If, on the other hand, the media guidance application determinesthat the last episode consumed (current progression point of mediaassets heard, watched, read) is greater or less than the episode thatwas predicted (first progression point) to be completed (“No” at 710),then at 712, the media guidance application causes to store therespective media assets from the plurality of media assets between thecurrent progression point and second progression point. For example, themedia guidance application adjusts the media assets stored on the devicebased on the difference between the first progression point and thecurrent progression point. For example, when the user is ahead ofschedule, the media guidance application deletes media assets alreadyconsumed and downloads additional upcoming media assets episodes of theseries or the watch list. In another example, the device deletes threeepisodes the user has seen and downloads equivalent episodessequentially following the episodes already downloaded. On the otherhand, when the user is behind schedule, the media guidance applicationdeletes media assets from the end of the downloaded episodes of theseries or the watch list and downloads additional media assets up to thelast episode consumed. In another example, the device deletes the lastthree episodes in the sequence to free up space and downloads threeepisodes from the front end of the list sequentially following theepisodes already consumed by the user.

It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of FIG. 7 may be usedwith any other embodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the steps anddescriptions described in relation to FIG. 7 may be done in alternativeorders or in parallel to further the purposes of this disclosure. Forexample, each of these steps may be performed in any order or inparallel or substantially simultaneously to reduce lag or increase thespeed of the system or method. Furthermore, it should be noted that anyof the devices or equipment discussed in relation to FIGS. 4, 5 could beused to perform one or more of the steps in FIG. 7 .

FIG. 8 is a flowchart of a detailed illustrative process for adjustingthe stored content based on the progression point, in accordance withsome embodiments of the disclosure. It should be noted that process 800or any step thereof could be performed on, or provided by, any of thedevices shown in FIGS. 2-5 . For example, process 800 may be executed bycontrol circuitry 412 (FIG. 4 ) as instructed by a media guidanceapplication implemented on a user device (e.g., user equipment devices514, 516, and/or 522 (FIG. 5 )) in order to optimize the amount ofcontent to download for a trip based on the progress of consuming theprogramming. In addition, one or more steps of process 800 may beincorporated into or combined with one or more steps of any otherprocess or embodiment (e.g., as described in relation to FIGS. 7-9 )).

At step 802, the media guidance application, before the user departs forthe trip, determines the current progression point of the media assetson the consumption device. For example, the media guidance applicationchecks how far in the series “Friends” the consumer is up to. In someembodiments, the media assets are a collection of movies added to awatchlist that the user plans to watch, and the progress is the moviesthe user has watched, for example, when the user added five movies tothe watchlist and has watched three of the movies before departing forthe scheduled trip.

At step 804, the media guidance application compares the currentprogression point of media assets (i.e., number of media assets theconsumer has consumed (e.g., watched, heard, read)) and the firstprogression point to determine if the progression points match. Forexample, if the media guidance application determines that the lastepisode consumed is the episode that was predicted to be completed(“Yes” at 804), then the media guidance application continues withoutmaking any adjustments to the stored media asset. If, on the other hand,the media guidance application determines that the last episode consumedis greater than the episode that was predicted to be completed (“No” at804), then at 806, the media guidance application adjusts or causes toadjust the media assets that are stored on the consumption device. Forexample, the media guidance application causes to be stored therespective media assets from the plurality of media assets between thecurrent progression point and second progression point on theconsumption device. For example, when the user is ahead of schedule, themedia guidance application deletes media assets already consumed anddownloads additional media assets on the back end of the series or thewatch list. For example, the device deletes three episodes the user hasseen and downloads equivalent episodes sequentially following theepisodes already downloaded. Furthermore, in some embodiments, the mediaguidance application may perform the comparison (and/or anydeterminations) prior to the scheduled start time of the scheduled trip.Alternatively or additionally, the media guidance application maycontinually monitor the progress of the user to inform him or her ofwhether or not he or she will finish the media asset (or whether theunconsumed portion will need to be consumed later or on a differentdevice) before departing for the scheduled trip. In some embodiments, aportion of the media asset, corresponding to the unconsumed contentremaining in the media asset, is available for download to a seconddevice to be shared to free up space for additional media assets to bedownloaded. For example, in response to determining that the user maynot be able to consume the entirety of the media asset, the mediaguidance application may allow the user to access the unconsumed portionon a second device. In some embodiments, the indication may besimultaneously displayed with the media listing (e.g., in order toprompt the user to select the media asset for playback as discussedabove).

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may authorizeanother device to access a copy of the media asset, currently beingconsumed by the user and stored at a particular repository. In suchcases, the media guidance application may authorize the other device toaccess the copy of the media asset at one time. Alternatively oradditionally, the media guidance application may create a copy of themedia asset, or a portion of the media asset, for continued viewing onanother device.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may, in response toa user selection of the indication, a subsequent user request, and/orthe end of a period of accessibility, extract the portion of the mediaasset that is not consumed and transmit (e.g., to another component ofthe device upon which the media guidance application is implemented, tothe second device, and/or to a third device (e.g., a web server) aninstruction to create a new media asset featuring only the portion ofthe media asset. For example, the new media asset may then be availablefor download to the second device (e.g., from the web server).

It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of FIG. 8 may be usedwith any other embodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the steps anddescriptions described in relation to FIG. 8 may be done in alternativeorders or in parallel to further the purposes of this disclosure. Forexample, each of these steps may be performed in any order or inparallel or substantially simultaneously to reduce lag or increase thespeed of the system or method. Furthermore, it should be noted that anyof the devices or equipment discussed in relation to FIGS. 4-5 could beused to perform one or more of the steps in FIG. 8 .

FIG. 9 is a flowchart representing an illustrative process 900 foralerting a user to the availability of a series for a scheduled trip inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure. Process 900 may beimplemented on control circuitry 412. In addition, one or more actionsof process 900 may be incorporated into or combined with one or moreactions of any other process or embodiment described herein.

Sometimes users can “binge-watch” an entire series in a single sittingor over only a few days. In some cases, the user may beginbinge-watching a series without knowing that the series will beunavailable at a destination the user is scheduled to travel to during aparticular time. At 902, the media guidance application determines ifthe user is watching an episode of a series. The media guidanceapplication accesses metadata corresponding to the media asset currentlybeing consumed on the consumption device on which the optimizationmodule 408 is employed. Suppose the user is watching an episode of aseries (“Yes” at 902). In that case, at 904, the media guidanceapplication determines whether the series will be available at thedestination during the particular period of time where the user has ascheduled trip. If, on the other hand, the user is not watching anepisode of a series (“No” at 902), then the media guidance applicationends process 900. Returning to 904, if the series will be available atthe destination during the particular time period (“Yes” at 904) thenthe media guidance application ends process 900. On the other hand, ifthe series will not be available at the destination during theparticular time period (“No” at 904), then at 906, the media guidanceapplication determines the total duration of the remaining episodes inthe series. The media guidance application (e.g., via control circuitry412) queries the platform for runtime data for all episodes of theseries which come after the episode currently being watched. In somecases, only one season of the series may be unavailable at thedestination of the scheduled trip during the particular time period.Suppose the episode currently being watched is an episode of the seasonthat will be unavailable at the destination of the scheduled trip duringthe particular time period. In that case, the media guidance applicationqueries the platform for runtime data for all episodes of that season ofthe series that come after the episode currently being watched. Themedia guidance application adds the runtime of each of the remainingepisodes together to determine the total duration of all remainingepisodes that will be stored on the consumption device.

At 908, the media guidance application determines whether the totalduration of the remaining episodes downloaded is less than thedifference between the first and second progression points as determinedabove. The media guidance application compares the length of durationthat was predicted based on where in the progression the user would bebefore the trip and after the trip with the total duration of theremaining episodes to determine whether the user will have sufficientepisodes to watch during the particular time period of the scheduledtrip. A total duration that is less than the length of the particulartime period (“Yes” at 908) (progression point from the start of the tripto progression point at the end of the trip) indicates at 910 that theuser can store and watch all the remaining episodes during transit or onvacation. On the other hand, a total duration that is greater than thelength of the particular time period (“No” at 908) (progression pointfrom the start of the trip to progression point at the end of the trip)indicates at 912 that the media guidance application should determinethe number of episodes that would last the duration of time between thefirst and second progression point. For example, the control circuitrydetermines that based on the difference in first and second progressionpoints in a series, the user will consume 4 hours of media assets oreight half-hour episodes. Based on determining that the user will finish4 hours' worth of media assets or eight half-hour episodes, the controlcircuitry stores the determined number of episodes, for example, eightepisodes, to avoid over downloading content and instead download anoptimized amount for the user to consume on the scheduled trip.

In some embodiments, the control circuitry 412 generates for display analert to the user that the series will be available at the destinationduring the particular time period. This allows the user to free up spaceon the consumption device and watch the episodes during the particulartime period.

The actions and descriptions of FIG. 9 may be used with any otherembodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the actions and descriptionsdescribed in relation to FIG. 9 may be done in suitable alternativeorders or in parallel to further the purposes of this disclosure.

FIG. 10 depicts an illustrative example of optimizing the media assetsfor consumption on the user device based on the scheduled trip byreshuffling the priority, in accordance with some embodiments of thepresent disclosure. FIG. 10 provides a consumer watch list, which may beuser input or generated based on the recommendation from the system. Thewatch list includes movie 1, movie 2, movie 3 and movie 4. Based onidentifying the scheduled trip to a destination where movies 2 and movie3 are not permitted due to access restrictions, the system mayautomatically reshuffle the order in which the movies are scheduled tobe consumed by moving movies 2 and 3 to the beginning of the order toallow the user to consume them before departing for his or her scheduledtrip.

FIG. 11 depicts an illustrative example of optimizing the media assetsfor consumption on the user device based on the scheduled trip bypre-downloading, in accordance with some embodiments of the presentdisclosure. FIG. 11 provides a consumer watch list, which may begenerated as discussed above or any other way to generate a list ofcontent for the user to consume. The watch list includes movie 1, movie2, movie 3 and movie 4. Based on identifying the scheduled trip to adestination where movies 2 and movie 3 are not permitted due to accessrestrictions, the system may automatically download to the consumptiondevice the movies 2 and 3 to permit the user to consume the moviesduring the scheduled trip.

As used herein, “a user interface application” refers to a form ofcontent through an interface that facilitates access to audio, music,news and podcast content on one or more display devices operating on anycapable device. In some embodiments, the user interface application maybe provided as an online application (i.e., provided on a website) or asa stand-alone application on a server, user device, etc. The userinterface application may also communicate with an antenna array ortelematics array to receive content via a network. Various devices andplatforms that may implement the user interface application aredescribed in more detail below. In some embodiments, the user interfaceapplication and/or any instructions for performing any of theembodiments discussed herein may be encoded on computer-readable media.Computer-readable media includes any media capable of storinginstructions and/or data. The computer-readable media may be transitory,including, but not limited to, propagating electrical or electromagneticsignals, or may be non-transitory, including, but not limited to,volatile and nonvolatile computer memory or storage devices such as ahard disk, floppy disk, USB drive, DVD, CD, media card, register memory,processor caches, random access memory (RAM), etc.

As referred to herein, the terms “media asset” and “content” should beunderstood to mean an electronically consumable user asset, such astelevision programming, as well as pay-per-view programs, on-demandprograms (as in video-on-demand (VOD) systems), Internet content (e.g.,streaming content, downloadable content, webcasts, etc.), a collectionof episodes in a series, a single episode in a series, video clips,audio, content information, pictures, rotating images, documents,playlists, websites, articles, books, electronic books, blogs,advertisements, chat sessions, social media, chat rooms, applications,games, and/or any other media or multimedia and/or combination of thesame. Guidance applications also allow users to navigate among andlocate content. As referred to herein, the term “multimedia” should beunderstood to mean content that utilizes at least two different contentforms described above, for example, text, audio, images, video, orinteractivity content forms. Content may be recorded, played, displayedor accessed by user equipment devices, but can also be part of a liveperformance.

The processes described above are intended to be illustrative and notlimiting. One skilled in the art would appreciate that the steps of theprocesses discussed herein may be omitted, modified, combined, and/orrearranged, and any additional steps may be performed without departingfrom the scope of the invention. More generally, the above disclosure ismeant to be exemplary and not limiting. Only the claims that follow aremeant to set bounds as to what the present invention includes.Furthermore, it should be noted that the features and limitationsdescribed in any one example may be applied to any other example herein,and flowcharts or examples relating to one example may be combined withany other example in a suitable manner, done in different orders, ordone in parallel. In addition, the systems and methods described hereinmay be performed in real-time. It should also be noted that the systemsand/or methods described above may be applied to, or used in accordancewith, other systems and/or methods.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: retrieving, via anelectronic communication path coupled to a consumer device, informationabout a scheduled trip, the information comprising a destination, ascheduled start time and a scheduled end time of the scheduled trip;retrieving, via the electronic communication path, a consumption patternfrom a user profile; determining, using processing circuitry coupled tothe consumer device and based on the consumption pattern, a firstprogression point within a series comprising a plurality of serial mediaassets at the scheduled start time of the scheduled trip; in response tothe determining the first progression point, determining, using theprocessing circuitry and based on the consumption pattern, a secondprogression point in the series by the scheduled end time of thescheduled trip; and in response to determining the second progressionpoint, storing media assets within the series between the firstprogression point and the second progression point on a local memory atthe consumption device; within a threshold time period before thescheduled start time of the scheduled trip: determining, using theprocessing circuitry, a current progression point within the series;comparing whether the current progression point matches the firstprogression point; and in response to the first progression point notmatching the current progression point, automatically storing additionalmedia assets within the series between the current progression point andthe first progression point on the local memory at the consumptiondevice.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the storing the media assetswithin the series between the first progression point and the secondprogression point comprises: determining a consumption order of themedia assets; identifying media assets from the series not available atthe destination of the scheduled trip, and reshuffling the stored mediaassets by prioritizing media assets from the series not available at thedestination prior to the scheduled start time of the scheduled trip. 3.The method of claim 1, wherein the storing the media assets within theseries between the first progression point and the second progressionpoint on the consumption device comprises: identifying, based on theuser profile, a travel consumption pattern of media assets using theconsumption device during a previous trip; determining, based on thetravel consumption pattern, a travel media asset consumption rate; andcalculating, based on the travel media asset consumption rate and aduration of the scheduled trip, an expected duration of the media assetsexpected to be consumed during the scheduled trip.
 4. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the consumption pattern is based on a travelconsumption pattern of media assets based on a previous trip.
 5. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the determining the second progression pointcomprises: identifying, based on the user profile, a travel consumptionrate while on a previous trip, wherein the previous trip comprises adate; identifying, based on the user profile, a non-travel consumptionrate; determining, based on time between the date of the previous tripand the scheduled trip, a correlation factor, wherein the correlationfactor is skewed towards the non-travel consumption rate based on alength of time from the date of the previous trip; and calculating,based on the travel consumption rate, the non-travel consumption rateand the correlation factor, a predicted consumption rate of media assetsusing the consumption device.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein theretrieving the information about the scheduled trip comprises: analyzinga calendar of a user of the user profile to identify an out-of-officenotification; accessing an email database to identify electroniccommunications that is addressed to the user of the user profile; andsearching the electronic communications for indications of scheduledtravel accommodations to identify the scheduled trip.
 7. The method ofclaim 1 further comprising adding the stored media assets from theseries to a watchlist.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein the comparingwhether the current progression point matches the first progressionpoint comprises: monitoring presentation of media assets within theseries on the consumption device; determining that the currentprogression point is different from the first progression point; andadjusting the first progression point to the current progression pointbased on a difference between the current progression point and thefirst progression point.
 9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:determining that a plurality of users associated with the user profileis expected to be on the scheduled trip; adjusting the secondprogression point in the series based on a joint consumption patternbetween the plurality of users; and storing media assets within theseries between the first progression point and the adjusted secondprogression point on the consumption device.
 10. A system comprising: alocal memory at a consumption device configured to store one or moremedia assets; at least one electronic communication path coupled to theconsumption device; a processing circuitry coupled to the consumptiondevice; and a control circuitry configured to: retrieve, via theelectronic communication path, information about a scheduled trip, theinformation comprising a destination, a scheduled start time, and ascheduled end time of the scheduled trip; retrieve, via the electroniccommunication path, a consumption pattern from a user profile;determine, using the processing circuitry and based on the consumptionpattern, a first progression point within a series comprising aplurality of serial media assets at the scheduled start time of thescheduled trip; in response to the determining the first progressionpoint, determine, using the processing circuitry and based on theconsumption pattern, a second progression point in the series by thescheduled end time of the scheduled trip; and in response to determiningthe second progression point, store media assets within the seriesbetween the first progression point and the second progression point onthe local memory at the consumption device; within a threshold timeperiod before the scheduled start time of the scheduled trip: determine,using the processing circuitry, a current progression point within theseries; compare whether the current progression point matches the firstprogression point; and in response to the first progression point notmatching the current progression point, automatically store additionalmedia assets within the series between the current progression point andthe first progression point on the local memory at the consumptiondevice.
 11. The system of claim 10, wherein the control circuitry isconfigured to store the media assets within the series between the firstprogression point and the second progression point by: determining aconsumption order of the media assets; identifying media assets from theseries not available at the destination of the scheduled trip, andreshuffling the stored media assets by prioritizing media assets fromthe series not available at the destination prior to the scheduled starttime of the scheduled trip.
 12. The system of claim 10, wherein thecontrol circuitry is configured to store the media assets within theseries between the first progression point and the second progressionpoint on the consumption device by: identifying, based on the userprofile, a travel consumption pattern of media assets using theconsumption device during a previous trip; determining, based on thetravel consumption pattern, a travel media asset consumption rate; andcalculating, based on the travel media asset consumption rate and aduration of the scheduled trip, an expected duration of the media assetsexpected to be consumed during the scheduled trip.
 13. The system ofclaim 10, wherein the consumption pattern is based on a travelconsumption pattern of media assets based on a previous trip.
 14. Thesystem of claim 10, wherein the control circuitry is configured todetermine the second progression point by: identifying, based on theuser profile, a travel consumption rate while on a previous trip,wherein the previous trip comprises a date; identifying, based on theuser profile, a non-travel consumption rate; determining, based on timebetween the date of a previous trip and the scheduled trip, acorrelation factor, wherein the correlation factor is skewed towards thenon-travel consumption rate based on a length of time from the date ofthe previous trip; and calculating, based on the travel consumptionrate, the non-travel consumption rate and the correlation factor, apredicted consumption rate of media assets using the consumption device.15. The system of claim 10, wherein the control circuitry is configuredto retrieve the information about the scheduled trip by: analyzing acalendar of a user of the user profile to identify an out-of-officenotification; accessing an email database to identify electroniccommunications that is addressed to the user of the user profile; andsearching the electronic communications for indications of scheduledtravel accommodations to identify the scheduled trip.
 16. The system ofclaim 10 wherein the control circuitry is further configured to add thestored media assets from the series to a watchlist.
 17. The system ofclaim 10, wherein the control circuitry is configured to compare whetherthe current progression point matches the first progression point by:monitoring presentation of media assets within the series on theconsumption device; determining that the current progression point isdifferent from the first progression point; and adjusting the firstprogression point to the current progression point based on a differencebetween the current progression point and the first progression point.18. The system of claim 10, wherein the control circuitry is furtherconfigured to: determine that a plurality of users associated with theuser profile is expected to be on the scheduled trip; adjust the secondprogression point in the series based on a joint consumption patternbetween the plurality of users; and store media assets within the seriesbetween the first progression point and the adjusted second progressionpoint on the consumption device.